...It Tolls for Thieu

"American Monument in Southeast Asia" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, March 20, 1975

Two weeks ago, our Graphical History Tour visited southeast Asia for the 50th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the communist Khmer Rouge. Today, we return for Part Thieu.

"We're Gettin' Out of Here" by Dave Engelhardt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1975

North Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of the South in January, 1975, its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (properly, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam)  racking up a string of victories. As it became crystal clear that the U.S. Calvary was not going to ride in to save the day, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu pulled back the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) for a last-ditch, desperate bid to protect his capital, then known as Saigon.

"We Would Be Much Braver Than This" by Pat Oliphant in Washington [DC] Star, ca. Apr. 3, 1975

ARVN’s hurried retreat left  military hardware abandoned in its wake, and ran through the panicked evacuation of civilians. Anyone with any connection to civilian government or the U.S. military fled in fear for their lives, with whatever they could carry.

The Chicago Tribune reported isolated instances of Americans in the path of the retreat being robbed by ARVN soldiers. The report quoted an anonymous Westerner that, "The South Vietnamese soldier feels he has been stabbed in the back by the Americans. He feels that he has had to suffer because of the war, but Americans come and go in Vietnam, brandishing their dollars, and he feels they owe him something, anything."

by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond [VA] News-Leader, ca. Mar. 30, 1975 

That report quoted an American teacher in Saigon: "The Vietnamese people are convinced that America has betrayed them. They believe we led them into the battle, then ran away and left them to fight. They have very little respect for us as a people."

On the other hand, a Vietnamese teacher at a Catholic school told the same reporter, "Americans have a tremendous guilt complex about what they have done in our country, the mistakes they have made, and now they feel everybody here hates them for it. Actually, the Vietnamese people don't hate the Americans, they just don't understand them. But who does?"

"Selling It to Congress Won't Be Easy" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1975

Acknowledging that the United States still had an obligation to the people who had relied on American promises, the Ford Administration opened the doors to as many Cambodian and South Vietnamese refugees as wanted to come to the U.S. 

In a joint effort, the U.S. military and Immigration and Naturalization Services (predecessor to today's ICE) scrambled to accommodate an estimated 120,000 refugees.

"Can the Congress Be So Calloused" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, April 16, 1975

The airlift started with Cambodian and Vietnamese children — mostly given up by terrified parents — arriving a Camp Pendleton, California, to be adopted by American parents. Then came whole families, sponsored by religious congregations and civic groups until they could make a living for themselves in a country where nobody spoke their language.

Sponsoring agencies had to commit to finding housing and jobs for the refugees, most of whom arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, whatever their circumstances might have been back home.

"There Goes the Old Neighborhood" by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, May 11, 1975

The cost of caring for the refugees while they were in temporary camps awaiting resettlement was predicted to cost $500 million (in 1975 dollars, or nearly $3 billion today). Inevitably, Americans being Americans, resistance and resentment soon arose to the wave of  strangers who would supposedly — this may sound familiar — eat the neighborhood dogs and the cats. 

U.S. News & World Report described refugees as "a motley mixture, from professors to bar girls." Washington Post Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman accused some of being "the pimps, madams, and hijackers of American food and material" and "the torturers from Gen. Thieu's political police."

"Thank God It's All Thieu's Fault" by Tom Curtis in Milwaukee Sentinel, April 3, 1975

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu had been President of South Vietnam since 1967. What opposition there was to his rule was unable to unite around any rival leader during elections in 1971.

Refugees fleeing south as the communists advanced "are voting with their feet," wrote National Observer columnist James M. Perry. "Trouble is, there is no one for them to elect. The army is in panic, the Thieu regime is broken, and Thieu himself is finally exposed as the pusillanimous fraud he has always been."

by David E. Seavey in National Observer, Washington DC, April 12, 1975

Thiệu resigned the presidency on April 22 in a rambling speech in which he revealed that to get him to sign the 1973 Paris Peace Accord, then-President Richard Nixon had promised that the U.S. military would return if the peace failed. Tearfully blaming the U.S. for his plight, he told his nation, "I never thought that a man like Mr. Secretary of State Kissinger would deliver our people to such a disastrous fate. ... If the Americans don't want to support us any more, let them go, get out! Let them forget their humanitarian promises!"

"King Rat" by Paul Szep in Boston Globe, April 22, 1975

Thiệu turned the government over to his ailing 72-year-old Vice President, Trần Văn Hương, who then resigned, succeeded by ARVN General Dương Văn Minh, 59. A leader of the 1963 coup that overthrew Ngô Đình Diệm, "Big Minh" had nevertheless earned a reputation for indecision.

Three days after ascending to the presidency, with PAVN advancing into Saigon and the U.S. hastily evacuating its embassy, Minh ordered ARVN to lay down its arms and surrendered to North Vietnam. Having offered no resistance to the victorious North, he was allowed to retire in peace, but eventually left for France.

"Will the Last One Out..." by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1975

Thiệu retired to the United States, living out his days here in obscurity. He died at age 78 in Boston, Massachusetts on September 29, 2001 after suffering a stroke.

Ask Not for Whom the Lon Nols...

This week's stop on the Graphical History Tour is the year 1975, marking a half century since the Fall of Southeast Asia to the Communists.

North Vietnam had used the period after the 1973 Paris Agreement, ending U.S. military involvement, to improve and fortify the Ho Chi Minh trail to the South. Skirmishes between the Armies of South Vietnam (ARVN) and North Vietnam (PAVN) prompted South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu to declare the peace treaty null and void in 1974, just as the Watergate scandal was removing U.S. President Richard Nixon from the picture.

"It Makes a Nice Shield" by Dick Wright in San Diego Union, ca. Jan. 16, 1975

The beginning of the end came as the year got underway. Attacking through Cambodia, PAVN quickly took Phước Binh. Reflecting American sentiment against putting more U.S. lives on the line, Congress refused President Gerald Ford's request for military aid. Demoralized ARVN forces retreated against PAVN advances.

"Rathole" by William "Zee" Zellar in Imperial Beach/Chula Vista Star News, Calif., Jan. 30, 1975

I've had been unable to discover who the cartoonist drawing as "Zee" was [update: see comments below, and thank you to D.D. Degg], but this cartoon perfectly illustrates the American mindset the Ford administration was up against. All that is missing are the lives, American and Vietnamese, lost down the "rathole."

(I did find a fellow Ole — class of '05 — selling a collection of Zee originals on eBay, but they didn't know Zee's identity, either. What I do know is that Zee drew steadily for the Star News papers of San Diego's suburbs from the 1960's until January, 1978, often on local topics.)

"Looks Like a Double-Header" by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, ca. Mar. 12, 1975

Cambodia had been in civil war ever since the U.S.-backed military coup led by Prime Minister Lon Nol overthrew the monarchy of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970. The communist Khmer Rouge continued fighting without interruption in spite of the 1973 Paris Peace Accord amongst North and South Vietnam and the United States, and in spite of a cut-off of arms from North Vietnam.

The alliance between the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam was an uneasy one of mutual distrust. Still, it was no coincidence that the Khmer Rouge launched an offensive in January, 1975 as PAVN advanced into South Vietnam.

"You've Got to Carry It, Sam" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, March 19, 1975

Popular support in the U.S. for the Lon Nol regime was practically non-existent. He had assumed the presidency of the Khmer Republic in 1972 after a blatantly rigged election, and his military (Forces Armées Nationales Khmères, or FANK) was rife with graft and corruption.

"How About Changing Leaders in Midstream" by Tom Curtis in Milwaukee Sentinel, March 12, 1975

Mike Mansfield (D-MT) in Tom Curtis's cartoon was the Majority Leader of the Senate, later U.S. Ambassador to Japan under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

"Towering Inferno" by Mike Lane for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. March 26, 1975

In desperation, Lon Nol sought out the advice of mystics and soothsayers, even sprinkling a circular line of consecrated sand intended to magically defend the capital city, Phnom Penh.

It didn't help.

"See the Light at the End of the Cambodian Tunnel" by Paul Conrad for Los Angeles Times, March, 1975

You didn't need a telescope to see the end of the Khmer Republic. FANK was low on ammunition and morale. By the end of March, the Khmer Rouge controlled all of the country but Phnom Penh and the Preah Vihear Temple on the Thai border, and were known to have an extensive list of Cambodian officials they intended to execute, starting with the man at the top. 

The scale of the genocide that was to follow would be beyond anything imagined by the outside world.

by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1975

Nol resigned and fled the country to California by way of Indonesia on April 1, 1975, and died there of cancer ten years later.

When the Expletives Hit the Fan

"When the Egg Hit the Fan" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1974

It's time for our Graphical History Tour to step back 50 years, just as the Watergate scandal was really, um, hitting the fan.

On April 30, 1974, Richard Nixon released transcripts of tape recorded White House conversations, responding to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee earlier that month for 380 hours' worth of the tapes themselves. 

"Right After You Eat..." by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1974

Rodino in Locher's cartoon is Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Peter Rodino (D-NJ); I suppose you can interpret the other diner to represent either the rest of the committee's Democrats or the media. Either way, the transcripts were not what the committee had ordered, but they were hungrily accepted nevertheless.

Major newspapers across the country printed out the White House transcripts in full, either by adding a special section or by serializing them over several days. It seems unlikely that more than a select handful would have the wherewithal to repeat such a feat today.

"That's All There Is" by Bernard Seaman in AFL-CIO News, ca. May 17, 1974

Tricky Dicky's transcripts were extensive, but didn't satisfy anyone. (Now, wouldn't Seaman's cartoon have been better if the transcripts had been wilted flowers?)

"Would You Buy a Used Encyclopaedia from This Man" by Ranan Lurie, ca. May 6, 1974

"Would you buy a used car from this man?" had been a Democratic Party poster attacking Nixon during the 1960 presidential race, resurfacing in variations (a used economy, a used war) when he won the presidency in 1968. Lurie was not the only cartoonist to resurrect it in connection with the White House transcripts.

"If You Liked the TV Appearance..." by Dennis Renault in Sacramento Bee, May 2, 1974

We already knew of the suspicious 18.5-minute gap in one of the tapes, supposedly produced by Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods simultaneously holding one foot down on the Play And Record button and reaching behind herself to answer a phone while transcribing them. To nobody's surprise, the released transcripts included a lot of little omissions on just about every page.

"Like Him, I'm Doing My Best" by Warren King in New York Daily News, May 1, 1974

In addition to innumerable comments on the tapes reported to be "inaudible" or "unintelligible," there were hundreds of instances of "expletives deleted." And a new phrase entered the popular lexicon.

"Fourscore and Seven..." by Don Wright in Miami News, May 2, 1974

President Nixon had cultivated an image of staid propriety — even, when he made an abortive move to doll White House security personnel up like a bunch of marching band drum majors, pomposity. When candidate Nixon showed up on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in just to say "Sock it to me?!" it was funny just because one was accustomed to hearing him speak more formally. We all assumed he wore a suit and tie every waking hour and only loosened the tie when it was time for bed. That he addressed his wife and daughters as "my fellow Americans."

"That's Nothing..." by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, ca. May 10, 1974

So learning that he routinely swore in private like a drunken sailor who'd just stubbed his toe was rather shocking. You'd have expected that sort of thing from LBJ. We were slightly embarrassed but not at all surprised later on to hear the recordings of him discussing inseams with his tailor.

"Now That You (Expletive Deleted) Have These (Inaudible) Transcripts..." by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1974

As for Abe Lincoln? You know, I'll bet he could tell a pretty good ribald joke if Mary wasn't around.

The Judiciary Committee continued its demand that the White House turn over the actual tapes, taking its cases to the Supreme Court. Everybody expected that as damning as the transcripts were, the tapes had to be worse. 

"Top Billing" by Charles Werner in Indianapolis Star, May 2, 1974

I wanted to be sure to include cartoons by some of Richard Nixon's most loyal defenders. That includes Ed Holland and Dick Locher at the top of today's post, and Charles Werner and Don Hesse.

"Friends List" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, ca. May 22, 1974

 It was becoming ever more difficult, however, to defend Nixon any more.  As edited as the transcripts were, they still provided ample evidence that the president was involved in efforts to cover up its connection to the Watergate break-in, and to obstruct congressional investigations into the affair. 

"Still Hungry, Big Fella" by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond News Leader, ca. May 9, 1974

Arch-conservative Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) was the first Republican Party leader to urge Nixon to resign; House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-OH) also told reporters that Nixon "ought to consider resigning as a possible option." Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA) called the behavior of Nixon and his aides revealed on the transcripts "deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral." 

"Sometimes I Must Admit to Some Misgivings" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, ca. May 14, 1974

Even Vice President Gerald Ford began to distance himself publicly from the administration he had joined just five months earlier.

"Easy, Dick..." by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1974

By the way, I've kept the caption to the Ed Holland cartoon at the top of this post exactly as it appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Whether the bowdlerization of a common vulgar phrase was done by the cartoonist or some milquetoast editor, he or they definitely blew an easy and obvious opportunity for cartoon use of "expletive deleted."

Try to Get Over the Toons of October

"And Now for the Latest Stunning Development" by Tom Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, October 1973

I've been seeing a lot of cartoons this week echoing the sentiment of this one by Tom Darcy half a century ago.

October of 1973 was a momentous month, and not in a particularly good way. Last Saturday's deadly surprise attack by Hamas targeting Israeli civilians as they celebrated Sukkot called to mind the Yom Kippur War almost exactly 50 years ago, when the Israeli military was caught similarly unprepared.

"Hello? Mr. Nixon? Mr. Brezhnev?" by Pat Oliphant in Denver News, October, 1973

After the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel had pre-emptively anticipated attacks from its neighbors on all sides and ended up seizing the Golan Heights from Syria, the Western Bank from Jordan, and the entire Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the Israeli military was seemingly invincible. But the Yom Kippur War would be, in the words of a Newsweek headline, "a war that broke the myths."

The UAR in Pat Oliphant's cartoon refers to the United Arab Republic, at the time a proposed union of Syria and Egypt that never actually came about. The two nations attacked Israel simultaneously, taking many Israeli soldiers captive. Egypt recaptured much of the Sinai; Syria, despite backing from Iraq, was soon driven back out of the Golan.

"An Eye for an Eye" by Corky Trinidad in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October (?) 1973

There was an Arab-language cartoon at the time that mocked Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who had lost an eye during World War II, wondering whether the outlook for Israel would be worse with two eyes, but I've been unable to find what book or scrapbook I have it in. Suffice it to say that Corky Trinidad's cartoon here riffs on an oft-cited biblical saying in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by referencing both Dayan's eyepatch and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's signature sunglasses.

Trinidad's cartoon expresses a view that both sides in the conflict are to blame for the cycle of violence that seems as never-ending now as it did half a century ago.

"You Guys Are Breaking My Back" by Ralph Yoes in San Diego Tribune, Oct. 1973

Ralph Yoes was not alone in suggesting, however, that there was plenty of blame to go around beyond the immediate belligerents. The United States was selling weapons and fighter planes to Israel, and the Soviet Union was arming the Arabs.

"Latter-Day Israelites Wandering 40 Years in the Wilderness" by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, Oct. 21, 1973

Wherever one has chosen to allot the blame, there has been one party who has consistently been, and remains, the victim. For way, way over that 40 years now. 

"Hell No, I Won't Go" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Today, October, 1973

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Attorney's investigation of corruption of Baltimore, Maryland officials discovered evidence linking Vice President Spiro Agnew to kickbacks from state contractors while he had been governor, and continuing after he was elected Richard Nixon's Vice President. Citing as precedent an 1826 House of Representatives investigation of Andrew Jackson's Vice President John C. Calhoun, Agnew argued that a vice president was immune from indictment by the criminal court system.

Deferring to the charges filed by the D.A., Speaker of the House Carl Albert (D-OK and third in line for the presidency) declined to open congressional investigation of the charges. As you may already know, both the House Judiciary Committee and the Nixon administration were quite occupied with other important matters in October of 1973.

"Yes, Thank You for Your Support, Mr. President" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, October, 1973

Agnew pleaded no contest to felony charges of tax evasion and resigned on October 10. Mike Peters's cartoon the next morning referenced a novelty watch and Agnew's dashed presidential hopes.

No caption, by Mike Peters in Dayton Daily News, Oct. 11, 1973

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, passed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, authorized the president to nominate a new Vice President, in this case Congressman Gerald R. Ford, subject to confirmation by the Senate.

"I Hate to Criticize the Framers of the Constitution" by Phil Interlandi in Los Angeles Times, Oct. 23, 1973

Thus the nation turned its eyes back to Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, and just in time for the "Saturday Night Massacre."

"Sure I Did It" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, October 22, 1973

Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, working for the Department of Justice, convinced Federal Judge John Sirica to subpoena nine White House tape recordings, the existence of which had been made public in Senate testimony that summer. In a bold attempt to quash Cox's investigation, Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire him.

Instead, Richardson resigned, followed by his Deputy, William Ruckelshaus. The next in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork did Nixon's bidding.

"Simple" by Tom Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, October, 1973

Blowback was swift. Time magazine and newspapers across the country called for Nixon to resign. At last, Nixon relented, promising to allow Judge Sirica to listen to the tapes...

"Well, First Let Me Emphasize My Complete Faith in Judge Sirica" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, Oct., 1973

... then announced that two of the subpoenaed tapes were missing. And it only got worse from there.

✍

I had originally intended to post today a report of last week's joint convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and our Canadian counterpart, but others have said just about anything I had in mind, and said it better than I would have.

I will say that it was a pleasure to meet with others in my beleaguered profession. That includes some, such as Al Goodwyn, whom I met for the first time at this convention. I know his work mainly because GoComics places him alphabetically first on its page (until Aaron Abelard comes along), and his views there are invariably opposed to mine. 

The AAEC had seen an exodus of conservative editorial cartoonists in recent years — perhaps because liberals like me keep getting elected to the governing board. But the purpose of the AAEC is not now, nor has it ever been, to push an ideological agenda. It exists first and foremost to promote editorial cartooning — right, center, or left — and to stand for professionalism and honest debate.

Nowadays, vulture capitalists are bleeding newspapers dry, reducing them to withered husks of what they used to be. The bean-counters at McClatchy summarily dismissed three Pulitzer-prize-winning editorial cartoonists in the months leading up to our convention; another was fired from a prominent position less than a week before our gathering. 

So discussion always turns to: if not newspapers, what? Patreon? Books? Television? Movies? Bar coasters? (Seriously. Bar coasters.)

In our element at the Cartoon Art Museum

One final note: I was excited to find a book of Vaughn Shoemaker's editorial cartoons in this room of the Cartoon Art Museum during our opening reception. I hoped that it would include the cartoon featuring my father when he was 5 years old. Unfortunately, the cartoons in the book dated from the 1950's, two decades too late. Aw, shucks.

It's Over, Over There

Today's Slowback Saturday would probably have been more appropriate a week or two ago...

"Thank God" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 8, 1945

I may be a little late to mark the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, but I prefer to think that I'm observing Memorial Day a little early.

"Slowly Emerging from His Last Foxhole" possibly by Harold Talburt in Washington (D.C.) Daily News, by May 7, 1945

I haven't been able to find the signature on this cartoon, but I suspect it was by Harold M. Talburt. Individual units of the German armed forces were surrendering for days ahead of the official surrender of the German government. Hitler's suicide was on April 30; the allies accepted Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz's May 7 surrender at 9:21 p.m. local time on May 8. (It was already May 9 in Moscow and points east, which is why Russia and Israel observe the anniversary a day later; the German Army Group Center in Prague held out until May 11.)

"Journey's End" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May, 1945

Many American cartoons celebrated the end of the war in Europe with images of swastikas, Mein Kampf, or other symbols of the Nazi regime in ruins. Of course, Hitler had been dead for a week, so there were no new cartoons, as there had been at the end of World War I, of the German leader suffering defeat.

"The End...And a Beginning" by John Milt Morris for Associated Press, by May 7, 1945

Many cartoonists focused instead on the victims of war and their hopes for a peaceful world to come.

"Peace" by Vaughn Shoemaker in Chicago Daily News, by May 8, 1945

All may have gone quiet on the European front, but the war continued to rage in the far east.

"It's a Date—See You in Tokyo" by Jacob Burck in Chicago Times, by May 7, 1945

Cartoonists conveyed a general sense that with Mussolini and Hitler out of the way, it was only a matter of time until Japan surrendered also. But nobody suffered the delusion that it was going to be easy.

"Holding Us Down to Earth" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by May 7, 1945

Dorman Smith was the prolific and widely distributed cartoonist who replaced the liberal Herb Block at the conservative Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1943. I could have easily replaced all of the V-E Day cartoons in this post with Smith's and still have captured all the moods of the day: exultation in victory, sympathy for the liberated millions, grim determination to soldier on in the Pacific, etc. (There is also a slim possibility that the cartoon I've credited to Talburt was actually by Smith; but while I found many of Smith's cartoons reprinted several times in a wide variety of newspapers, I have only found "Slowly Emerging from His Last Foxhole" in one.)

"And Now..." by Jim Berryman in Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, May 8, 1945

In missing the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, I also missed the 45th anniversary of the very different end of another armed conflict.

"Will the Last One Out..." by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1975

On the 30th anniversary of Hitler's suicide, the People's Army of Vietnam completed their conquest of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. The U.S. hastily evacuated its embassy of all personnel, as more refugees than could be accommodated scrambled to board the departing helicopters.

"This Is the Way the World Ends..." by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, April 30, 1975

U.S. troops had ceased hostilities over three years earlier, Americans having grown weary of a seemingly endless war that showed no progress and deeply divided the body politic. Skirmishes continued between South Vietnam and North Vietnam and their Viet Cong allies. When North Vietnamese forces launched a new major offensive in 1975, South Vietnamese forces crumbled before them. President Gerald Ford found no support in Congress for sending American reinforcements.

"First World War..." by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond News Leader, by May 11, 1975

The fall of Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was widely viewed as marking the end of "The American Century."

"Second Thoughts" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, by May 9, 1975

But there would be a momentary lapse in the hand-wringing in mid-May. Gunboats of the Cambodian Navy seized a U.S. merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in the Gulf of Thailand. 65 hours later, the U.S. Air Force and Marines overwhelmed the ship's captors. Eighteen Americans died in the operation, but all 39 crew members of the Mayaguez were returned safely to their ship.

"Mayaguez Incident" by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1975

That the Khmer Rouge apparently had no intention of keeping the Mayaguez crew captive indefinitely was immaterial to a nation desperately in need of something to feel good about.